More on Van Leur’s ‘Pedlar’ Thesis

Abstract

Van Leur, a Dutch official in Indonesia, developed a theory about the pre-colonial nature of seaborne Asian trade. According to him it was large in volume but with minuscule units (pedlars). In contrast, the European companies, because of the advantage secured by them through economies of scale, were able to carry on oceanic trade far more successfully and so prevailed over the Asian pedlars. This thesis, along with its later versions, is examined in the following article, with evidence to show that (a) Asian merchants’ establishments could also be very large and (b) could successfully stand up to Europe Companies in fair competition. Moreover, van Leur was further wrong in imagining that pre-colonial Asian maritime commerce was confined to high-priced goods only.